


An Unusual Tuesday

by prissygirl



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - No Curse, F/M, Fluff, One Shot, Romance, Rumbelle - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-21
Updated: 2016-06-21
Packaged: 2018-07-16 10:12:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,804
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7263787
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/prissygirl/pseuds/prissygirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mr. Gold can handle most things that life throws at him. A crying six-year-old and an angry librarian might be the exception.</p>
            </blockquote>





	An Unusual Tuesday

There weren’t a lot of things in this world that unnerved Reuben Gold. He was usually the one that inspired fear, not the other way around.  But there was something about little children and crying that had always seemed to rattle him.

Which meant the weeping six-year-old in front of him was more than setting Gold’s teeth on edge.

He hadn’t set out to scare the child. Contrary to the Storybrooke rumor mill, Gold didn’t actually eat children for breakfast. Once he had been saddled with that sort of fairytale monster reputation though, he supposed things like this were bound to happen.

It happened on a Tuesday, of course – the one day of the week he looked forward to. Every Tuesday afternoon for more years than he could count, he would lock up his shop a half an hour early and walk across the street to the library. He’d return his books from the week before and pick up several new ones to while away his spare hours with.

Mr. Gold was a man of schedules. Things usually went like clockwork in his life and on the rare occasion that they didn’t, he became very cross.

The fact that he had walked down this aisle in the library hundreds of times before without interruption didn’t seem to matter to the child. The little boy continued to sob and wail at him as Gold clutched the copy of Peter Pan to his chest, which he had grabbed from the shelf a second before the child’s chocolate-covered hands could close around it.

He kept trying to shush the boy, even begrudgingly offering to give the book to him if only he washed his hands first. For some reason, that only made the child cry harder. Gold looked around nervously, waiting for the mother of said feral creature to come to its aid and give him an earful.

It wasn’t as if he couldn’t handle an angry mother. The majority of the town was usually mad at him for some reason or other most days. But Tuesdays were the one day each week where he was guaranteed to receive a smile and a kind word. Tuesdays were the day he got to spend at least several precious minutes talking to Storybrooke’s resident librarian, Belle French.

Gold wasn’t one to fall for a pretty face usually, but Miss French was beyond pretty in his opinion. Her brown curls always bounced about excitedly when she talked about the newest book she had read. Her sparkling blue eyes would light up whenever he asked her to recommend something for him to checkout. Her sweetness was on the verge of being contagious and he often had to stop himself from smiling dumbly at her as she inquired about the books he returned, asking if he liked them and telling him – at length – her favorite parts of each.

He wasn’t sure how someone so young had managed to read every book on the shelves, but if there was anyone in Storybrooke capable of such a feat, it was Miss French.

The child, who seemed to have run out of tears for a moment, began producing large hiccupping sobs from his candy-stained mouth.

Realizing it was probably a lost cause, Gold turned to leave when he caught sight of Miss French, who was walking towards them with a frown on her face. It was an unusual sight to see on her sweet face and he found he didn’t like it.

He especially didn’t like the fact that it was currently aimed at him. She came to a stop in front of them, hands coming to rest on her hips.

“What in the world is going on?” she asked. “I could hear crying all the way over in the children’s section.” She looked down at the little boy. “Billy, what’s wrong?”

Billy wiped his eyes with his sleeve and pointed towards Gold. “He took my book.”

“He was going to ruin an early edition of Peter Pan,” Gold shot back. “Look at the state of his hands! There’s probably half a chocolate bar melted on there.”

Miss French looked back and forth between the two before crouching down before the child.

“Billy, you know you’re not supposed to eat in the library,” she said gently. “You wouldn’t want to damage the books now, would you?”

Billy shook his head no, looking ashamed.

“Alright, well how about we go get you washed up and then we’ll find a copy of Peter Pan in the children’s section – one with a lot of pictures. Does that sound okay?”

Miss French got an enthusiastic nod from Billy and she stood up and began to usher him towards the bathroom. As they walked off, she turned her head towards Gold, who was smirking.

“Don’t think you’re off the hook yet, mister.”

Gold’s grin faded.

This just wasn’t shaping up to be a good Tuesday.

\--------------------

Gold should have known she had something up her sleeve after her parting comment.  But despite her warning, he hoped that she had forgotten her anger twenty minutes later when he finally built up the courage to approach her at the checkout desk.

He laid his three books down on the counter nervously. His hesitant smile turned to a frown when Miss French merely glanced at the books and crossed her arms.

“No,” she said simply.

“What do you mean ‘No’?” His eyes narrowed. “Are you actually refusing to let me check these out?”

The corner of her mouth twitched. “Perhaps.”

Gold sighed, his hand gripping his cane tightly. “Fine,” he said, trying to give his voice the cold indifference he used when talking to the rest of the town. “I’ll just be on my way then.”

As he turned to leave, he heard Miss French give a very unladylike snort.

“So you can dish it out, but you can’t take it, Mr. Gold?”

He turned back towards her, mystified at her words. His confusion must have showed on his face, because she continued.

“I can’t just let you run around making children cry whenever you feel like it,” she said. “There have to be consequences for your actions.”

Gold’s eyes narrowed as he stared at her smirking face. He wasn’t quite sure he was reading her playful tone right, but it almost seemed as if she was flirting with him. He decided to test her and see how she responded.  

“Are you saying I need to be punished, Miss French?”

Something in her eyes flashed and for a moment Gold thought he had gone too far. But then she smiled and a small blush rose on her cheeks. He found the sight utterly enchanting and vowed to make her blush whenever possible in the future.

“Well, I did have something in mind you could help me with,” Miss French said. “But only if you think you can handle it.”

His mind immediately went somewhere rather lewd at her words. He was still uncertain whether she was intentionally phrasing her sentences that way, or if he was reading too much into the situation. Deciding that caution was perhaps the better choice, Gold fell back on his reputation as a businessman.

“As you know, Miss French, I’m a man of deals.” He lent against the counter and was pleased to see her lean in, as well. “I don’t do anything unless it’s beneficial to me in some way. If I was to agree to whatever – penance – you have in mind, I’d like to know what I would be getting out of the arrangement.”

She raised her eyebrows. “How does the chance to do something positive for others sound?”

“Dreadful.”

Miss French laughed then and gave him a bright smile. For a few moments he could see the gears turning in her head, as she mulled over what he had said.  

“Well then, how about I make you a deal? You agree to do this small thing for me today,” she leaned even closer towards him, “and in return, I’ll owe you a favor.” She reached out and straightened his tie before withdrawing her hand. “Do we have a deal?”

Gold was grateful for the support of the counter or he was sure he would have collapsed to the floor at her light touch. His mouth was dry and his tongue felt like lead in his mouth. “Any favor?” he asked, his voice coming out rather rough.

Miss French’s blush returned and she giggled. “Within reason.” She picked up a sticky note and a pen from her desk, hastily scribbling something down. “I happen to be free Friday night, by the way.” She finished writing and held the paper up, close enough so that he could see what was written on it, but too far for him to reach easily.

He found himself gulping as he read the note. She had written her phone number in large print with the words “Call me” at the bottom.

“So is that a deal, Mr. Gold?”

A small voice in the back of his brain was reminding him of the dangers of agreeing to a deal without knowing the details. But as his eyes fixated on those two small words at the end of her note, all he could think of was the endless potential Friday night could hold.

Gold found himself nodding.

“It’s a deal.”

\--------------------

As Gold sat uncomfortably on a low stool in the library half an hour later, he realized too late that he may have underestimated the young librarian’s craftiness.

He had never suspected the kind Miss French of being a sadist, but he was quickly beginning to suspect otherwise. Her blue eyes were twinkling madly and she was holding back barely concealed laughter as she watched him squirm in his seat.

A sea of small faces stared back at him. Gold could see Billy in the back, trying to sneak some gum out of his pocket. The other children looked at him with either terror or impatience.

Gold reached up to straighten the wizard’s hat that Miss French had insisted he wear for the occasion. He took a moment to glare at her, which only caused her smile to grow.

He found himself returning the smile in spite of himself. Even his current situation couldn’t ruin the promise of Friday or the fact that her phone number was tucked safely away in his jacket pocket. Once his end of the deal was fulfilled, he would begin planning for the weekend.

If he was lucky, perhaps he could get her to blush again. 

Pushing away those thoughts for the moment, Gold took a deep breath and focused on the task at hand, opening an illustrated copy of Peter Pan. “All children, except one, grow up,” he began.

Perhaps it wasn’t such a bad Tuesday, after all.

**Author's Note:**

> Author's note: I wrote this in early 2015 and never published it! Thought it seemed fitting to post on a Tuesday.


End file.
